Expression and content
المؤلف:
Bronwen Martin and Felizitas Ringham
المصدر:
Dictionary of Semiotics
الجزء والصفحة:
P61
2025-05-29
590
Expression and content
According to Hjelmslev, there are two fundamental planes or levels of language, the plane of expression and the plane of content. These two planes correspond to Saussure's distinction between the signifier (expression) and the signified (content). They are in a relationship of reciprocal presupposition. The level of expression relates to the domain of sound (music, the spoken word), to that of shape or colour or line (graphic icons or images), to that of movement or gestures. The level of content, on the other hand, relates to the concept or idea expressed by these sounds or icons, in other words, it concerns their semantic charge. In our traffic light system, for example, the colours and their spatial layout - green, amber, red - belong to the level of expression. Their significance - green = go, red = stop - belongs to the level of content.
Hjelmslev, however, defines the two planes of language even further:
The level of expression. The level of expression can itself be subdivided into two components, the substance of expression and the form of expression. Music and the spoken word, for instance, have the same substance of expression: sound. Their form or organization, however, differs: language uses the linguistic system; music employs its own arrangements of opposition and metre. The same applies to the world of colour and shape as a means of expression: the substances painting, photography, drawing - all take distinctive forms in the way they are organized and applied.
The level of content. This may also be subdivided into the substance of content and the form of content. The substance of content has been described as an original amorphous continuum of meaning. Hjelmslev gives the example of the general idea of sibling relationship (fraternite) considered as a type of nebula. This substance of content takes different forms in different cultures. French (and English), for example, possess the two distinct terms: brother and sister. Hungarian has, in addition, separate terms for younger or older brother or sister, etc. The Mayan language, on the other hand, does not differentiate between brother and sister at all: one term - sudara — is used to cover them both.
It must be remembered that the substance of content can only be apprehended through its form: the substance is presupposed but beyond the reach of linguistic investigation. Hjelmslev's concept of language, therefore, supports Saussure's claim that language is a form and not a substance.
See also signifier and signified.
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